Dome / Scope Maintenance advice wanted

[jonathan]

OK, quick question - With a dome that has a push-to revolving top half would it be advisable / safe to open it up on a sunny day, point the dome opening at the sun and just point the scope (with the caps off) North so the sun should never track to it, in order to eliminate any fungus that has formed on surfaces?  I realise the fungus would still be around, perhaps on interior surfaces that don't catch the sunlight, but warmth from the sun shouldn't affect the scope should it?

How often would you say this should be necessary to keep the fungus factor under control?

Similarly, should an eyepiece case be left open and exposed to direct sunlight, and should the eyepieces have both caps off in order for scattered UV to contact the glass surfaces?  Will this be sufficient to kill off fungus etc (I read in a post that about 20 minutes should be sufficient)?  Is there any danger from or to eyepieces so long as they are not directly pointing at the sun?

Thanks.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by jonathan

[DaveL59]

So long as the sun isn't directly hitting the lens then you could be fine but 20 mins I'd reckon being a bit short. More usually for indirect solar you'd be looking at a few hours perhaps and even repeated on a few days. How frequent is hard to say, depends how much the gear has been exposed to the potential of spores and storage conditions. I more use a UV light than the sun, more reliable than the sun here and is convenient and less of a risk of starting a fire 🙂